EastLink TV lays off 33 people; two in P.E.I.

EastLink TV is laying off 33 people in its television division, including two in Prince Edward Island, as it streamlines its television operations.
Betty Lou Jordan, host of its flagship P.E.I. news show, EastLink Magazine, and Shane Wasnidge, a cameraman and technician on the Island, have been laid off.
That leaves only three full-time staffers at its P.E.I. television division.
Thirteen people are being laid off in Nova Scotia.
Still, Jill Laing, a spokeswoman with EastLink in Halifax, says her company remains committed to local television and says no community channels will close.
"This has been a very difficult decision," Laing said.
"This is a business decision. It's really the result of EastLink, as an organization, assessing the market and evaluating how we do business and how we're able to deliver our products and services in the most efficient way possible."
EastLink TV produces about 1,400 hours of local programming throughout Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
In P.E.I., it produces a weekly news program called EastLink Magazine. It also broadcasts high-profile community events including the QEH 21-Hour Equipment Drive, which raised nearly $525,000 for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital last month, and the Gold Cup Parade.
Contacted on Wednesday, Jordan described the layoffs as devastating news.
Jordan has spent 12 years with EastLink TV as a host, reporter and producer. She is three years shy of retirement.
"I poured my heart and soul into it, I loved everything I did," said Jordan, adding it's the people she'll miss the most as she travelled across the Island telling what she described as good news stories.
"I didn't see it coming."
Jordan said the announcement comes on the heels of the QEH 21-Hour Equipment Drive, which she said she spent more than 200 hours on as the senior producer of the show.
"I'll miss the QEH/EastLink 21-hour Equipment Drive because I've always felt that it's been my baby for the last 12 years."
The job cuts are effective immediately.
It remains unclear what the cuts will mean to local programming. It could be that EastLink Magazine will become a regional show, based out of Halifax. The three remaining staffers in P.E.I. - two reporters and a station manager - would feed local stories into the regional broadcast.
Laing said it is too early to say what impact the layoffs will mean to local programming but she did say EastLink TV remains committed to community broadcasts like the hospital telethon.
"We're always evolving our programming and that will continue," she said.
"Our commitment is to continue that local programming and providing that access to community television, and supporting the communities we serve across the country."